1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording/reproducing apparatus or a reproducing apparatus such as a video tape recorder (hereinafter abbreviated to "VTR") or a video cassette recorder (hereinafter abbreviated to "VCR"). More specifically, the present invention relates to a recording medium cassette capable of giving pieces of information about the recording medium cassette to a recording/reproducing apparatus and of recording pieces of information, or a recording/reproducing apparatus or a reproducing apparatus capable of identifying recording medium cassettes which provides pieces of information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Specific pieces of information about the recording medium cassette for use on a VTR or a VCR, including the length of the tape, the available capacity of the tape, the condition of the tape, namely, whether or not information is recorded on the tape, and the category of the tape, namely, whether or not the tape is a rental video tape, are necessary to prevent damaging important data recorded on the tape, to achieve correct recording, and to prevent illegal use of the tape by recording the number of times of dubbing.
Accordingly, these specific pieces of information are written in a specified area in the tape, such as a subcode area, and the pieces of information are changed or additional pieces of information are added to the previously recorded pieces of information when picture recording or picture reproducing has been completed on a recording/reproducing apparatus or when removing the recording medium cassette from a VTR or a VCR. Some recording medium cassettes are provided with recognition holes representing pieces of information in the opposite ends of the bottom wall thereof.
As shown in FIG. 11, a recording medium cassette A is provided with a plurality of recognition holes c representing the type and qualities thereof in the opposite corners of the bottom wall thereof. Matters to be displayed including the type of the magnetic tape and the thickness of the magnetic tape are assigned to the plurality of recognition holes c, respectively. When the recording medium cassette A is inserted in a recording/reproducing apparatus having switches provided with detecting pins, the detecting pins are inserted in the recognition holes c, and the recording/reproducing apparatus recognizes pieces of information represented by the recognition holes c from the depths of the recognition holes c detected by the detecting pins. In FIG. 11, indicated at d are positioning holes.
When it is desired that pieces of information about the recording medium cassette A are written in a specified area of the tape contained in the recording medium cassette A, it takes time to write the pieces of information in the specified area or to read the pieces of information from the specified area. When writing the pieces of information in the specified area, in particular, the .tape needs to be rewound after completing picture recording or picture reproducing to set the specified area at a writing position, which is not an efficient method of writing the pieces of information in the specified area of the tape.
Tape cassettes provided with an IC chip for storing information about the recording medium cassettes have been proposed in:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,644 Jul. 6, 1982 (Theophiel C. J. L. Starr), PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,285 May 10, 1983 (Theophiel C. J. L. Starr), PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,684 Jan. 17, 1984 (Claude Sechet et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,875 Jun. 13, 1989 (Zenkichi Kuriyama et al.).
Although these previously proposed recording medium cassettes facilitate storing information about the recording medium cassettes, the IC chip increases the cost of the recording medium cassettes. It may be economical to use both relatively expensive recording medium cassettes provided with an IC chip, which will be called an IC type recording medium cassette, and a relatively inexpensive recording medium cassettes provided with only a terminal plate having a plurality of terminals, which will be called terminal type recording medium cassettes. The plurality of terminals are connected by conductors to the plate in a circuit pattern representing pieces of specific information about the recording medium cassette. These two kinds of recording medium cassettes must enable the user to use these two kinds of recording medium cassettes without discrimination. Therefore, the IC type recording medium cassette provided with an IC and the terminal type recording medium cassette provided with a terminal plate must be able to be identified automatically, or these recording medium cassettes will not be prevalently used.
Accordingly, the information about the recording medium cassette must be automatically converted into corresponding data when the recording medium cassette is inserted in a recording/reproducing apparatus whether or not the recording medium cassette is provided with an IC chip.